Latino homeowners in R.I. lag nation, report says

Friday

Feb 27, 2015 at 12:01 AMFeb 27, 2015 at 9:33 AM

PROVIDENCE — While 45 percent of the nation's Latino households own their own homes, Rhode Island's Latino homeownership rate is a dismal 26 percent, according to report from HousingWorks RI and the Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University.

By Christine Dunn Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — While 45 percent of the nation's Latino households own their own homes, Rhode Island's Latino homeownership rate is a dismal 26 percent, according to report from HousingWorks RI and the Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University.

Even among the minority of Latinos who do own their own homes, 56 percent are housing cost-burdened, meaning they are spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs, according to the report, scheduled for release Friday.

In Massachusetts, the Latino homeownership rate in 2013 was 24 percent, even lower than it was in Rhode Island. In New England as a whole, it was 28 percent in 2013, according to the report, which used the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

"Housing prices are extremely high here, and that's a barrier," said Mario Bueno, executive director of Progreso Latino, the Central Falls-based community and social services organization. Also, the high unemployment and rise in foreclosures that plagued Rhode Island after the banking crisis of 2008 disproportionately affected the Latino community, he said. "I know that families were hard hit after the [housing] bubble burst," Bueno said.

"Latinos are the fastest-growing ethnic group in Rhode Island," said Ana Cano Morales, director of the Latino Policy Institute. "We need them to become more engaged in the housing market, to be able to save enough money to purchase their first home, or to build equity to pass down to the next generation. The first step is addressing the affordability gap facing so many Latino households so they can play an even larger role in Rhode Island's economic future."

About 13 percent of Rhode Island's population is Latino, and the Latino population increased by nearly 52 percent between 2000 and 2014.

Latinos as a group earn less than non-Latinos, which is another barrier to homeownership for the Latino community. Even among homeowners, who earn more than renters, median 2013 incomes were $79,596 for non-Latinos and $55,113 for Latinos.

For renters, median incomes in 2013 were $31,436 for non-Latinos and $23,374 for Latinos. The Latino renters faced a 16-percent decline in income since 2007, when their median income was $27,683. In 2007, non-Latino renters had a median income of $31,682, nearly the same as it was in 2013.

Progreso Latino offers financial literacy and housing-education classes to the community, Bueno said, in addition to helping tenants address issues with their landlords. Bueno agreed that it is important for more Latinos in Rhode Island to achieve "the American dream" of homeownership.

However, the Housing Works/Latino Policy Institute report shows that the rate at which Latino households in Rhode Island apply for mortgages fell by nearly 53 percent between 2007 and 2013, from 1,952 applications to 922. For Rhode Island's non-Latino population, home mortgage applications fell from 12,314 in 2007 to 9,084 in 2013, a decline of about 26 percent.

"That's problematic," Cano Morales said. Homeownership "is directly tied to economic development," she said, and the low rate of homeownership among Latinos in Rhode Island has "implications for real estate" and associated businesses.